Abortion does not raise risk of breast cancer, US study finds

Neither induced abortion nor miscarriage increases the risk of breast cancer, a large prospective US study has found.

Results of previous case control and retrospective studies have been inconsistent. Anti-abortion groups in the United States have claimed that having an abortion increased a woman's risk of breast cancer by 30%, and anti-abortion counsellors used the argument to dissuade women from having an abortion.

The researchers, from Harvard University, say that about a quarter of US women aged under 45 years have had at least one induced abortion (Archives of Internal Medicine 2007;167:814-20).

They wrote, “In this cohort of young women, we found no association between induced …